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Ranche and Range.
Oi,i> Skiiiks, Voii.4. NO. 4.)
New Skbies, Vor,. 1, No. 23. (
A SWEET CLOVER BOY.
There isn't a mother among our readers but will agree
with us that the accompanying picture shows a youngster
about as fine and sweet as they make 'em. His name is
Charles Leslie Crane, and he is but eight months of age.
Those chubby features of his have already started him
upon the high road to fame, for the directors of the Wash
ington Condensed Milk Co., of Seattle, have decided that
this portrait is the very thing to use upon the labels of
their "Sweet Clover" brand. So as the business grows this
little fellow is going to continue to enlarge his circle of
acquaintances all over the Pacific Coast and maybe go into
the foreign lands across the ocean. Anyway Charles Les
lie is a winning youngster and we who have today had
our first introduction to him in his healthy^baby bigness
will watch him grow and grow, and after awhile he will
take his place right up among the first in the ranks and
fight with all his young energy, for the interests of Puget
Sound and the great State of Washington.
RESULTS IN FARMING.
H. A. March, of Fidalgo Island, one of the most success
ful farmers in the State of Washington, who has always
made money in good times and bad, although 71 years of
age, has been spending a gay week in Seattle, solidly en
joying himself and making himself as much in evidence
as any 20-year-old youth. He is a great lover of yachting,
has a good yacht himself and he is Commodore of the
lower Sound Yacht Club. For 30 years Mr. March has
farmed on a point between Fidalgo and Padilla Bays, and
his success has been so marked as to command the atten
tion of leading agriculturists the county over. Probably
all of our readers are aware of the fact that he is the most
successful grower of cauliflower seed in the United States.
He has a great reputation as an intensive farmer and puts
on the market products that always command the very best
price going. No better illustration of the way he achieves
such marked results can be given than to reproduce the
following letter written The Rural New Yorker regarding
a potato experiment he made:
"I received my Rural New Yorker potato No. 2 about the
middle of April. It was about the size of an English wal
nut and weighed just 1 1-4 ounces. Now the question was
to get the largest return from the small amount of seed
for seed next year. I carefully cut each eye out and laid
them on a dish; then I cut all of the largest eyes in halves,
making, in all, 13 sets. Some of them were no larger than
a grain of wheat. I now took a piece of old onion ground
very rich from former manurings, dug a trench 14 feet long,
six inches deep and 12 inches wide on the bottom, accord
ing to The Rural New Yorker's trench system. In the
bottom of the trench I placed two inches of well rotted
stable manure and incorporated it well with the soil.
"On this I planted the sets and covered them two inches
with soil. I then sowed over the surface of the trench at
the rate of 500 pounds to the acre of flsh guano and worked
ISSUED WEEKLY
SEATTLE, WASH., SEPTEMBER 9, 1897.
it well in with a rake. When the young plants made their
appearance the leaves were about the size of a radish in
the seed leaf. They looked as if they would be a failure
for the want of nourishment from the small sets. I kept
the soil stirred around them and watered them every few
days until they got a start. After that they took care of
themselves as well as any potato I ever planted with two
to four ounce sets. The season being dry, they were thor
oughly soaked with water twice during the growing season.
On August 27 they were dug in the presence of three wit
nesses. The stalks were over 2 1-2 feet tall and from 1 to
1 1-4 inches in diameter. The yield was 67 pounds of good
marketable potatoes. The largest hill from one set was
eight pounds nine ounces. In this hill grew the two larg
est potatoes. The yield per acre, allowing the rows to have
been three feet apart, the usual distance of planting, and
the sets one foot apart in the rows, would have been 1220
bushels to the acre! When we take into consideration the
size of the sets and the amount of stock seed —1 1-4 ounces
—I think it safe to say the yield has never been beaten in
field culture. H. A. MARCH.
"Skagit County, Washington."
"R. N. V. —This correspondent wrote us last spring just
after receiving his little potato that he had always sup
posed 'The Rural had more sense than to send out such a
little potato by mail.' "
THE NEW TARIFF ON FARH PRODUCTS.
The following are the rates under the new tariff on some
of the more important agricultural products, as compared
with the Wilson tariff:
Dingley Bill. Wilson Bill.
Apples $0.25 20 per cent
Barley .30 30 per cent
Beans .40 20 per cent
Butter .06 4 cents
Cabbage .03 free
Cattle 3.75 20 per cent
Cheese .06 4 cents
Eggs .05 3 cents
Hay 4.00 $2.00
Hides 20 per cent free
Horses and mules $30.00 20 per cent
Lambs .75 20 per cent
Lumber 2.00 free
Potatoes .25 15 cents
Poultry, live .03 2 cents
Poultry, dressed .05 3 cents
Sheep 1.50 20 per cent
Straw 1.50 15 per cent
Wool, Class 1 .11 free
Wool, Class 2 .12 free
Wool, Class 3 4 to 7c free
The rains of the week throughout Western Washington
and Oregon are bad for the hop pickers—even the native
born Siwash, fish-fed and raised on the beach, is kicking.
Continued rain is bad for the fruit trade, and while the
clouds are spilling their contents no one cares for fresh
fruits except for preserving. Watermelons suffer most, be
cause they are a warm weather berry and in consequence
they are piling up on dealers' hands.
J. L. Craib, a Seattle commission merchant, has returned
from a trip to his old home in Scotland. He also visited
England, France and Germany and reports that he found
times considerably improved among farmers in all those
countries, particularly in France. Mr. Craib brought back
with him some very fine pigeons of the pouter and fan-tail
varieties, which he proposes to exhibit at all the Coast
shows this winter. Mr. Craib is also a breeder of Silver
Wyandottes and Barred Plymouth Rocks.
$1 PER YEAR.